2023-12-27 21:11:45
Valencia The Valencian government wants families and not the school board to choose the language used in each school. This was advanced in an interview given to the Europa Press agency by the Regional Secretary of Education, Daniel McEvoy, who detailed that the Ministry has a “very advanced” draft of what will be the new multilingualism law, which will be processed by the Courts in the coming months. The current rule establishes a minimum of 25% of teaching hours in Catalan and Spanish and between 15% and 25% in English.
The project envisages making a telematic “consultation” with the families of primary and secondary school students about the “base language” in which core subjects must be taught, reserving a minimum of 25% of the teaching for the other co-official language and a percentage yet to be defined for a foreign language. The families that would participate in the process would be those of students entering the education system for the first time. However, and in the first year of application of the rule, it is also being studied to ask “all the families” in the center.
Although McEvoy has not detailed the new model, it would not be applied in its entirety in the municipalities of eight counties where Catalan has historically not been present or has been residually so. It is Baix Segura in the province of Alicante; from the Plana d’Utiel, the Racó, the Foia de Bunyol, the Vall de Cofrents, the Serrans and the Canal de Navarrés to that of Valencia, and from Alt Palancia to that of Castelló. In these localities, the vehicular language would always be Spanish and the subject of Valencian will only be studied if the student requests it. An exception provided for by the education law of 1983, which is still in force, would thus apply. In fact, this exception has already been approved in the draft law on fiscal measures, administrative and financial management and organization of the Generalitat of 2024 – popularly known as the law accompanying the budgets.
When asked about the refusal of the PP and Vox to the fact that the vehicular language is defined by a linguistic project, the regional secretary emphasized that the two parties prefer that “the freedom of choice belongs to the parents of the students “. “In the School Council, representation is equal and not balanced between families, teachers and students. So, what we want is for the families to choose in the same way as they did, for example, with the school day on previous government”, summarized McEvoy.
The high official of the Department of Education has also detailed that the draft includes a series of tables that foresee different percentages in the use of each language. In addition, a mechanism for reviewing and updating the chosen model has also been designed.
Finally, Daniel McEvoy has stressed that the Generalitat wants to “guarantee” and “encourage” the learning of Valencian and that it is “friendly and palatable”. For this reason, it will launch a certification of the levels acquired in the different stages. “A language cannot be learned by imposition, the language must be protected and it must be loved, but it can never be imposed and that is the line we follow”, he concluded.
“Why aren’t families allowed to choose whether students want to study mathematics or Spanish?”
The Ministry of Education’s proposal has been “head-on” rejected by the opposition parties and the Union of Teaching Workers of the Valencian Country (STEPV). For the teachers’ representatives, the project “pursues the annihilation of Valencian in the educational system”. In this sense, from the STEPV they claim that justifying the modification with the reasoning that “Valencian is an imposed language is a Manichean argument and totally absurd pedagogically speaking”. “Valencian is an official language and must receive the same treatment as Spanish. For this reason, speaking of imposition is a fallacy that is only used in the case of Valencian. Or is it that Spanish and English as a vehicular language is not imposed in the same way as Valencian?”, emphasized the union. From the STEPV they have called it “irresponsible” that families can choose the vehicular language of the center, “as they cannot choose whether mathematics or geography and history must be taught”.
Regarding the students of the eight counties where Catalan has historically not been present or has been residually present, the teaching union states that it is “obvious that these counties must have a differentiated treatment with respect to teaching in Valencian, but encourage that Valencian is not studied or that subjects are taught in Valencian is treating our students as second-class citizens, since future job opportunities are limited if they do not have knowledge of our language.”
With regard to the collectives that bring together the students’ families, the AMPAs, opinions are divided, fundamentally, between family associations of charter schools, which are in favor of them, and the public ones, which are much more representative, and between which there are those in favor and others who ensure that the ministry gives in to the pressure groups of the more conservative sectors.
Meanwhile, the opposition parties agree to reject the project. For the spokesman for Education of the PSPV in les Corts, José Luis Lorenz, it is “ridiculous” that all the work done to develop the language project of an educational center can be “modified without taking into account the overall pedagogical vision of the center of the faculty”. In a similar vein, the spokesperson for Educación de Compromís, Gerard Fullana, considers that the decision to hold “referendums” to choose the base language of each educational center “hides the true intention of creating a war between families to reopen the linguistic battle “. According to Fullana, “this is not a mechanism of freedom of choice, because 51% can decide for 49%; therefore, this referendum between families does not guarantee any freedom”.
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